The amalgamation trend in the dairy industry – making bigger farms by combining smaller ones, is reducing the numbers of sharemilker positions in the Bay of Plenty.
'We were actually looking for a position, it was pretty tough going,” says Federated Farmers BOP sharemilkers spokesman Jon Russell.
'There were only 11 jobs advertised in the North Island to about Christmas time, normally it's much higher than that.”
While he agrees with Federated Farmers sharemilkers chairman Jeff Bolstad's prediction of a tight year or two for sharemilkers, he believes so for different reasons.



Jeff says farms have been amalgamating and reducing sharemilking positions since the government left rural banking in the 1980s.
'That means there's been a lesser pool of jobs for sharemilkers to fit in to,” says Jeff.
'As the farms get bigger the sharemilking options get less.”
Jeff, a Morrinsville sharemilker, says that situation has been worse in Waikato and Northland but it was probably masked by the large number of conversions in the South Island during recent years.
The number of these has now dropped back dramatically. On top of this, he says recession has made farm owners look closely at the benefits of owning their own herds.
'From a farm owner's perspective they'll look to see whether there's more value in owning their own cows and putting a herd manager on.
'It provides them with a bit more stability and it's my understanding that both farm owners and the banks are looking for that stability.
Jon says Bay of Plenty sharemilkers are sitting tight for a couple of reasons.
'The cows are not too badly priced, ranging around $1850 for a top cow,” says Jon.
He's one of the few sharemilkers in the Bay of Plenty who will be shifting to take up a new contract on June 1. He's packing up the herd and taking them 160km south towards Taupo.
'There's not a lot of sifting round the in Bay of Plenty anyway,” says Jon.
'It's a pretty good place to live and people tend to hold onto their jobs around here. 'There's a lot of good jobs in the Bay and you don't see the same amount of shifting.”